Hello!

Our team at Snowbird would like to wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Although this year was a quite a challenge for everybody, and, unfortunately, we were not able to keep all our promises to you, we're looking into the future with careful optimism, and hope that we would release ongoing projects and start develop new projects as well.

See you all in 2021!

PS. Just a short reminder for all of you - ongoing Winter Sale on Steam is the best and last chance to buy our games in 2020!

Hello!

Due to the lack of news and updates, you might be wondering what happens to our development plans. Have we forgot about the Eador universe at all or do we have something up our sleeve?

Well, as you may have already guessed - we have a bunch of surprises for our fans.

Although it was not an easy decision to make - considering all the "wonderful" events humanity had in 2020, we were always passionate about TBS and somewhere in August we began sketching new project. Hopefully this information will cheer you up a little!

Today we are ready to make a first official public announcement of the upcoming title in the Eador universe.

Because it is very early stage of development, there is not much we can show you, but so far you can be sure that:

• The game will be based on the Unreal Engine.
  
• Astral, which was put aside in the Imperium is coming back with new features.
  
• A new storyline campaign which will unfold some secrets.
  
• And, of course, new masters, heroes and creatures!

We will do our best to keep you posted on our development progress - in the newsfeeds for Eador games, and, later we will welcome you to the dedicated project as soon as we setup one.

And while we at it, we would like to take opportunity and invite you to take a part in the Steam Autumn sale - you may buy Eador or other our games to support further development and keeping us alive :)

Also it is a good time to look back and check out previous Eador games:

• "Eador. Masters of the Broken Worlds"
  
• "Eador. Allied forces"
  
• "Eador. Imperium"

We'll keep you posted!
Development team.

This is how the office of Snowbird Games looks today. Just the same as yesterday. It has been looking pretty abandoned for the last week.



There is an irony that we have created our first games, for example, Combat Mission: Afghanistan or Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword - as a distributed team, so this current quarantine mode is not as stressful for us as for many other teams. There is only one member of the team who suffers from frustration - our cat Girya (is diminutive of Snegirya, literally ‘a little snowbird’ in Russian).



This kitty had a bit of a rough start, we found her and adopted her in 2014. Once she’s spent 2 weeks in a locked basement, and that is why she doesn't like it at all if there are less than three or four people around. Of course, we don’t abandon our kitty, and our level designer Stanislav became her personal curator, but Girya still doesn’t understand where everyone has gone and is it already possible to bring everyone back. Oh my dear cat, we’d be happy to know the answer.

This is not to say that when everyone works from home, they have plenty of time. There is no time at all now - instead of one finger you could point to the monitor and three words (what the hell? ), you have to assemble a Skype congregation. Some of us have children, and this is a special hell of having a remote school in your living room. All your family members also have constant calls, there is little space, there is a lot of noise, you can’t go for a walk, so you’re going bananas. Still, you can’t say that this is SO BAD. The blockade of Leningrad anyone? That was terrible, and the current quarantine routine is just moderately annoying.



Why are we writing about this? We think it’s just about time to do something for others. For some reasons, our games are designed for long gaming sessions, we are doing projects that can be played for a long time. So we were thinking: let us try to make a game balance patch.

We’ll immediately answer the question why we decided to fix the balance and not the problems of the engine - because the engine requires huge investments of programmers time, and the result could still be “It's easier to break everything and build this on a new engine”. In fact, we think about it. Before the plague and mass bankruptcy season began, we’ve even managed to put together a prototype on Unreal. If the world does not collapse, if the Internet is not disconnected, if everyone is not taken to a digital plague barrack, we will return to this. In the meantime, let's talk about balance.

There is a guy called Sentinel, what do you think about him? Rumours say that in the “sandbox” mode he comes on the 5th shard map and kills everyone. Should we nerf a Dwarven Tank? Do legionnaires make old swordsmen useless?

It might be strange that we ask players these questions, but if you think about it, you can realize this is the only way to fix the balance. Blizzard could not make out DotA under their nose. Players know games much better than developers. Therefore, let's talk about the balance.

Hi everyone,

Today we're releasing a new update for Imperium, numbered 2.75.1! With this update we're adding an ability to hire units in provinces — without any conditions like special buildings and other. But! It's not available at all times and it's very limited.



What's the game logic behind this? If you're far from your base and have a small army, sometimes you have to come back for reinforcements. Or build a fort which isn't cheap. That's why you can now hire the 'locals' — they are residents of the province, who can be enlisted into your army for gold. Here are the restrictions: there's few of them, they aren't always available, and their quality depends on the population level of the province. Which is fair: if you have a cabin in the woods, then there will likely be nobody to hire (or just a lonely peasant who is tired of living in the forest). In a highly populated settlement there will be more people wishing to join you.

Besides adding this new mechanic, we've also fixed a few bugs thanks to your reports — mostly related to incorrect AI behavior).

Hi everyone,

And so it begins. Steam Summer Sale is about to start, and of course we're taking part in it as well.



All projects from Snowbird Games will be at 80% discount throughout the whole sale. Here are the games we have for you:

- Eador. Genesis
- Eador. Masters of the Broken World
- Eador. Masters of the Broken World - Allied Forces DLC
- Eador. Imperium
- All Eador games in a bundle
- Blood & Gold: Caribbean!

By the way, be sure to check out our new developer page on Steam — you can follow us there for all the upcoming news. Have a nice sale!

Hi everyone,

Today we have a philosophical question for you. Before we start discussing it, let's briefly talk about our current plans for Imperium. In the coming month we want to finish the work on the new medal system, and also add the functional for the new hiring in provinces.

Now to the question itself — for how long, in your opinion, should developers support their projects?

There could be a number of answers to this. The most obvious one — until the game is completely finished and completely free of bugs. A good answer, that one, but not very realistic: there will always be some bugs, because almost any game is a very complex system. And when developers and players want something new and improved in an already released game — more bugs inevitably appear. Sometimes those bugs can be experienced by 8% of the playerbase, who use a very specific combination of video drivers and keyboards.



Let's also consider this: sometimes developers aren't even able to support the project, because they lack proper skill or knowledge. Or there is no access to the engine. What should be done in that case — will it be ethical to explain the situation and be honest about it with the players?

This can cause an immediate negative reaction, as in 'if you can't do something properly — get out of the profession'. But let's see how this position could be unfair and irrational. There are such respected professions as doctor, lawyer, schoolteacher. If those people lack skills and knowledge to diagnose correctly, save from prison and teach somebody to be ready for Oxford — do they need to be exiled and become cashiers? Yes, not everything depends on them in the end, but it's the same with game developers. How many mistakes can a doctor make in his career? These days for developers it's enough to make one, as the story with Cliffy B shows.

We understand this may sound like an excuse, but for all the problems our games have, they also received (and keep getting) updates for the longest time after release, including some free content — we're genuinely curious about this topic.

So what is your criteria what good or bad supporting of a game? Do you wait for new content or bugfixing first? What's your opinion on ethic of game developers and what they should do in this case?

Hi everyone,

Today we're releasing a new update for Imperium, mainly concerning balance issues in the game. Thanks to everyone who shared their feedback on this!



Update notes 2.74.1:

New:

- Tweaked the balance of some units as suggested by the players:

Bowman:
HP 10 > 12
Exp modifier 140 > 100
Price 60 > 40
Upkeep 12 > 8

Pikeman:
Stamina 10 > 11

Crossbowman:
HP 10 > 13
Ranged Defense 2 > 3
Exp 23 > 16
Exp modifier 150 > 90
Price 60 > 50
Upkeep 12 > 10

Dwarf Engineer:
Resistance 4 > 3
Ranged Attack 6 > 5
Morale 14 > 13
Exp 30 > 35
Exp modifier 150 > 170
Price 85 > 100
Upkeep 18 > 22
Resource: iron > mithril

Hunter:
Ranged Defense 4 > 3
Morale 9 > 8
Exp modifier 120 > 140
Price 50 > 70
Upkeep 7 > 14
Removed 12th level upgrade "Armor-piercing shot"

Flagellant:
Exp modifier 80 > 110
Price 20 > 30
Upkeep 4 > 6

Sentinel:
"Control protocols" skill - removed "Tireless" ability from the 3rd level

Fixed:

- Fixed an error resulting in the hero's army gaining boost to morale whenever they visit the "Temple of Light" site.
- Fixed an error in the "Golem Works" site which resulted in only the basic Golem being available for recruitment.
- Fixed an error causing a sequence of two battles when recapturing a province of rebellious Centaurs.

Hi everyone,

New update for Imperium will be available in the closed branch on Steam shortly.

If you want to check it out, do the following:

Select Eador. Imperium in you Steam library, right click, choose ‘Properties’ and head over to the ‘Betas’ tab. After that, you’ll be able to choose ‘Public preview’ branch ‘from the drop-down list.

Cheers!

Hi everyone,

We're very grateful to everyone who shared their ideas on unit balancing with us. Admittedly, the current balance is by no means perfect and it needs some work — on the other hand, looking for some imba-combination could be a separate game on its own. There's also a third side to this — what's too powerful in one hands can be near useless in others. The debate over which hero is too easy (Sentinel or Warrior) is a good example of that.

By the way, before this whole discussion we saw some topics where people were unhappy with Legate (too many high-ranked units = too easy), with Scout (ranged attacks are too powerful) and even with Sorceress (too many spells). It seems that the heroes are in a pretty good place balance-wise (or you're too good with them).



So what are we planning to do after reading your comments:

- We'll change the Sentinel a bit — most likely take his 'Tireless' ability away.
- Do something about the archers — not sure what exactly yet, but we do agree: at the moment they are one of the least useful units.
- Buff crossbowmen — they are a bit too expensive and a bit too useless.
- Rework the Mercenary guild — so that the Fire Giant wouldn't be so easily accessible.

A few more comments on your comments:

- Lizardman Turtleback is supposed to be powerful — it can only be obtained by upgrading your unit, can't be simply hired, doesn't bring any bonuses for alliance with the lizardmen. So we think his strength is fair.

- Flagellant doesn't compare to Barbarian in brute force. But as a neutral and as a means of fighting magic — it's all fine.

- Important thoughts from user NQ — we have to consider the difference between initial and upgraded units. It's a very thin ice: the whole system can be easily broken. Which is not perfect, but it works. Would it be interesting to upgrade units, if the new benefits are too weak?

In general, we think it's worth trying to change some things in the way you can get non-castle units. Perhaps, this will bring major differences. Also, please don't write off 'usual' players — there are non-vocal people who honestly think the game is too brutally difficult. So, for example, nerfing Engineer would turn their story campaign into nightmare.

Thanks again to everyone who shared their thoughts — we'll see what we can do.

Hi everyone,

We have a small update on Eador. On two 'Eadors', actually — the recent giveaway showed there is still some interest in Masters, even after all this time.

So this week we want to stabilize the MP servers for MotBW — this shouldn't take long in theory, but have too few people for our current number of projects. Then we return to Imperium, trying to battle the infamous Access Violation error (aka 'Imperium.dll error') and integrating the updated medal system.



Also, we have a couple questions for you:

- What units do you consider imbalanced? Perhaps, Fire Giant or Hydra? Dark Treant? A unit, that either makes the rest of your whole army look useless or infuriates you in a battle against it.

- What units have you never seen in the game, while knowing they are present there? For example, did you see the special forms of dragons: Storm or Cursed ones? What about Ice Wizards? Crystal Golems? Were you aware they even exist?

Let us know in the comments. We have some ideas on how to improve this aspect of the game.